What Is Digital Marketing?

What Is In a very simple way, digital marketing is advertising that is performed through digital channels to reach new and existing site visitors. This is done through means such as search engines, social media, email, other websites and mobile applications.

Digital marketing also can include phone, television any other method where the delivery is performed through digital means, if you take the definition literally.

When I refer to digital marketing, I am generally speaking of just the most popular means:

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short, means optimizing your website content and other technical aspects to make your site and it’s pages easier for search engines to access and index.

This is done through various means, including optimization of load times, keyword usage and placement, to name a couple. In essence, SEO is performed to give a site the best possible chance at getting ranked as close to the #1 spot in organic searches.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the process in which advertisements and information is radiated out through social media channels. This is done through paid and non-paid posts and status updates, or a combination of both.

Social media marketing focuses on grabbing the viewers attention and moving them to take a desired action, whether that be liking or sharing a page or post, clicking a link, watching a video or commenting.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the oldest types of digital marketing (within my definitions) in the last 20 years, and it continues to be one of the strongest forms of marketing to date.

Emails are a necessity in most people’s lives. Many people check their email at least 20 times a day.

Content Marketing

The term “Content Is King” is to broad and vague to be used in digital marketing, but in a sense, it does hold true.

Content marketing is the cornerstone of Search Engine Optimization. It all starts with content. No content, nothing to market.

Content marketing also goes hand in hand with social media, paid and non-paid marketing efforts.

Content can’t be just anything though. Certain types of content appeal to certain people. In addition, any content that is put out should be valuable, unique and share worthy.

Paid Advertising

Paid advertising in terms of Digital Marketing is perhaps the biggest beast of all. PPC, PPA, PPV and so many other terms floating around, it’s really difficult to know where to start.

Paid advertising is attractive as it can put your content in front of more people faster than organic means, and in many cases, offers additional benefits of having your ads appear above the organic results on search engines specifically.